Tag: Question Time

A col­league asks: “Why was Win­ston Churchill able to get away with call­ing Prime Min­is­ter Ram­say Mac­Don­ald the “Bone­less Won­der,” where­as a Labour MP was sent home by the Speak­er last week for call­ing Prime Min­is­ter David Cameron “Dodgy Dave”?

Good ques­tion! Ah for the likes of Ques­tion Time in the U.S. Con­gress, where Pres­i­dent Trump or Madam Pres­i­dent Clin­ton gets to be grilled with all the famous gus­to of the House of Com­mons.

Dodgy: 11 April 2016 Mr. Skin­ner fires all bar­rels at Mr. Cameron.

Eighty-four-year-old Den­nis Skin­ner (Lab., Bolsover) was eject­ed from the House of Com­mons by the Speak­er, John Bercow, for refus­ing to with­draw, and in fact repeat­ing, the term “Dodgy Dave” with respect to David Cameron.…

7 Decem­ber 1936 (House of Com­mons): “May I ask my Rt. Hon. Friend [Prime Min­is­ter Bald­win] whether he could give us an assur­ance that no irrev­o­ca­ble step… [Hon. Mem­bers: “No!”] …that no irrev­o­ca­ble step will be tak­en before the House has received a full state­ment, not only upon the per­son­al but upon the con­sti­tu­tion­al issues involved. May I ask him to bear in mind that these issues are not mere­ly per­son­al to the present occu­pant of the Throne, but that they affect the entire Con­sti­tu­tion.” [Hon. Mem­bers: “Speech,” and “Sit down!”]

Churchill lost care­ful­ly built polit­i­cal cap­i­tal by ris­ing to defend Edward VIII, who was fac­ing abdi­ca­tion over his insis­tence on mar­ry­ing Wal­lis Simp­son, a divorced Amer­i­can.…